Cody Jinks performing during the 20th Anniversary World Tour at the Germania Insurance Amphitheater in Austin, Texas on September 28, 2026. (Photo: Ralph Arvesen)
Cody Jinks has spent much of his career proving that independence and scale are not opposites. The Fort Worth singer built his audience outside the traditional country system, touring relentlessly and releasing music without reshaping himself to fit whatever was moving through mainstream radio at the time. That approach took longer, but it also produced something difficult to manufacture. By the time larger venues became normal, the songs already belonged to an audience that had found them on its own.
That history makes his place on the current Five Finger Death Punch tour less unusual than it might initially appear. Dropping an outlaw-country singer between hard rock opener Eva Under Fire and one of modern metal's biggest bands looks like an abrupt stylistic turn, but Jinks started in heavy music. Long before Loud & Heavy became one of his signature country songs, he fronted the metal band Unchecked Aggression. The connection between country and metal is not something created for this tour. It has been part of his musical history from the beginning.
Jinks grew up learning guitar from his father and initially wanted to play rock rather than country. Unchecked Aggression developed a following around the Dallas-Fort Worth area, recorded an album and eventually headed west in hopes of taking the next step. It did not work out. Jinks returned to Fort Worth, worked regular jobs and eventually began playing music full time again, this time moving toward the country songs that had surrounded him growing up.
That change of direction did not erase the instincts he developed in metal. His country music has always carried more weight than polish, with a deep baritone sitting over electric guitar, pedal steel and a rhythm section that can push harder than the traditional-country label might suggest. Even his quieter material tends to feel sturdy rather than delicate. The songs frequently deal with work, family, addiction, consequences, stubbornness and the uneasy process of figuring out what kind of person is staring back from the mirror.
The long climb became easier to see with Adobe Sessions. Songs including David, Mamma Song and Loud & Heavy helped turn years of touring into a much larger following. I'm Not the Devil followed with an even broader reach, while its title track reinforced the straightforward writing that had become one of his strengths. Lifers, After the Fire, The Wanting and Mercy continued the progression without turning Jinks into a conventional country-radio act.
The consistency is important. Jinks has never appeared especially interested in chasing a reinvention simply because enough time has passed to expect one. The records change in tone, production and perspective, but the center remains recognizable. There are plenty of songs about hard living, yet the catalog becomes more interesting when consequences replace celebration. Regret, sobriety, marriage, responsibility and getting older gradually carry more weight than the mythology of being the guy who refuses to follow the rules.
Change the Game reflected that maturity particularly well. The title could have suggested some dramatic stylistic reset, but the more important change was personal. The writing sounded like someone taking inventory instead of simply adding another chapter to the outlaw-country image. That direction continued with In My Blood, his eleventh studio album, produced by Joshua Thompson and Charles Godfrey. The album retains the familiar mix of honky-tonk, Southern rock and country storytelling while placing renewed emphasis on redemption, resilience and the choices that accumulate over a lifetime.
Songs such as Better Than the Bottle, The Others, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Lonely Man and the title track fit naturally into the larger catalog because they do not try to disguise where Jinks is in his life. In My Blood is not his most radical record, and it does not need to be. Its strongest quality is the same one that has carried much of his career: the impression that the person singing the song actually has some history behind the words.
The live band helps preserve that character. Jinks' longtime Tone-Deaf Hippies include Austin "Hot Rod" Tripp on pedal steel guitar, Chris Claridy on lead guitar, David Colvin on drums, Jake Lentner on guitar, Joshua Thompson on bass and Matt Nolen on piano. Several have spent many years with Jinks, and that continuity matters in music where feel is often more important than technical flash. The arrangements have enough muscle for an amphitheater without losing the country instrumentation underneath them.
On the current tour, Jinks has been given roughly an hour between Eva Under Fire and Five Finger Death Punch, enough time to make the appearance feel closer to a compact headline set than a quick opening slot. The songs choices were heavily on the material that established his career, including Fast Hand, David, Ain't a Train, Hippies and Cowboys, Mamma Song, Must Be the Whiskey and Loud & Heavy. Found, written by longtime collaborator Ward Davis, has also become part of the run.
One of the more revealing choices is It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll). Taking on an AC/DC song in the middle of a country set could easily feel like a novelty, but it works with Jinks' background and with this particular tour. The heavier side of his music is never far away, and a bill headlined by Five Finger Death Punch gives him an unusually appropriate place to expose it. Ending around the territory of Loud & Heavy only makes the connection clearer.
There is relatively little need for decoration around songs like these. Much of Jinks' appeal onstage comes from a full band playing them directly, without trying to transform every number into an arena production. That approach can almost feel defiant on a tour surrounded by considerably heavier production. It also gives the evening some breathing room. Eva Under Fire brings modern hard rock, Jinks changes the musical language without completely reducing the weight, and Five Finger Death Punch eventually takes the night into full-scale metal.
The contrast is likely the point. Country and metal have shared audiences for a long time, especially among listeners drawn to direct songwriting, heavy guitars and artists who present themselves as outsiders from their respective industries. Jinks fits that intersection unusually well. He can follow a hard rock band with pedal steel in the mix and then cover AC/DC before handing the stage to Five Finger Death Punch without either side of the equation feeling entirely out of place.
That same independence explains why Jinks has developed the career he has. He did not arrive through a major-label launch or a carefully constructed attempt to join country music's mainstream. The audience accumulated over years of clubs, theaters, festivals and increasingly large venues. There is nothing particularly mysterious about the formula. Keep touring, keep writing, maintain control of the work and hope enough people continue to care.
At Germania Insurance Amphitheater in Austin, Cody Jinks occupies an interesting position on the bill. He is technically support, but his catalog and touring history are substantial enough that the set stands on its own. More importantly, the placement offers a reminder that the distance between outlaw country and heavy metal is sometimes much smaller than the labels suggest. Jinks spent years traveling from metal into country. On this tour, for an hour each night, the two sides of that journey meet again.
Setlist for the show at the Germania Insurance Amphitheater
- Midnight in Montgomery (Alan Jackson) / Long Haired Country Boy (Charlie Daniels) / (Ghost) Riders in the Sky (Johnny Cash)
- Fast Hand
- David
- Ain't a Train
- Hippies and Cowboys
- Found
- Heavy Load
- Mamma Song
- Which One I Feed
- And Again
- Must Be the Whiskey
- It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)
- Loud and Heavy
Cody Jinks shared the stage with Five Finger Death Punch and Eva Under Fire at Germania Insurance Amphitheater. They continue across the United States with the last stop at the Stagecoach in Indio, California on April 23, 2027.
Cody Jinks
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